20 Ways to Craft Your Career Path

Are you ready to take charge of your career?

I was reading an article by Heather L. Mason PhD about her path to freelancing. It was a short article but a novel-long life lesson learning. The author mentions eye-opening points in her story that may teach you lessons on becoming stronger. Here are 20 lessons I got from her path:

1.      Believe in yourself, don’t be swayed by others' ideas of your capabilities of reaching a goal.

2.      Be aware of your personality:  Are you always looking for new things or are you a statistic?

3.      Be focused on what you want.

4.      Be resilient to the itch of getting prestigious titles that do not lead you to your destination and kill your enthusiasm for your favorite job.

5.      Accept the challenge.

6.      Manage the chock of new situations even if it does not match your pre-expectations.

7.      Do not listen to others' expectations of you.

8.      Believe that life will give you new opportunities from where you do not even know.

9.      Be aware of alternative career paths.

10.   A Career break does not mean you are out of the market forever.

11.   Deal with being over- or under-qualified for a job.

12.   Become your own advocate in your career.

13.   Be active on social media; contact old colleagues or new people for help.

14.   Join career specialist communities (eg, EMWA or AMWA for medical writers).

15.   Learn Continuously.

16.   Find a mentor to avoid being isolated.

17.   Gain these important skills: persistence, diligence, and flexibility.

18.   Being out on your own requires skills beyond writing alone.

19.   Be the master of your destiny.

20.   "Energy and persistence conquer all things", Benjamin Franklin.